Friday, March 24, 2017

In a dramatic widening of an academic
antisemitism scandal at the Max Planck Institute for the promotion of lectures
delivered by a pro-Hezbollah instructor, German Green Party lawmakers began a
parliamentary inquiry on Friday into Dr. Norman Finkelstein’s talks.

The Jerusalem Post
obtained a copy of the Green Party questionnaire sent to Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s administration, which includes her Education Ministry’s criticism of
allegedly shoddy scholarship practiced at the Max Planck Institute in Halle.
Stefan Müller, an undersecretary of the Education Ministry, wrote that the
ministry “sees with concern that in the context of a controversial academic
discussion possible antisemitic theses were given a platform.”

Müller, a member of Merkel’s
Christian Democratic Union, said the government called on the president of the
Max Planck Institute, Martin Stratmann, to clear up the alleged misconduct.
Stratmann, according to Müller, has not provided answers to the Merkel
administration.

Pro-Hezbollah activist and US
academic Finkelstein delivered two lectures, including one titled “Gaza: An
Inquest into its Martyrdom.”

The talks were held in January
at the Max Planck Institute branch in the city of Halle, in the state of
Saxony-Anhalt.

The institute under Stratmann’s
leadership has been mired in turmoil since the Halle branch of the institute
allegedly lied to the public about the content of Finkelstein’s pro-Hamas talk.
The US and the EU classify Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organisations.

Finkelstein has defended Hamas
violence against the Jewish state, saying: “Now, under international law,
Hamas, the Palestinians – nothing in international law debars them from using
armed force to end the occupation…. For me that’s not an important question.
Legally, they have the right. Morally, in my opinion, they have the right.”

In a statement to the Post,
Green Party deputy Volker Beck, who along with fellow lawmakers jump-started
the parliamentary investigation into Max Planck Institute’s management, said,
“The invitation [to Finkelstein] was certainly not academically kosher. And the
public was lied to multiple times.”

Beck said the institute must explain
why academic Marie-Claire Foblets, who vigorously defended Finkelstein, “did
not tell the public the truth about the topic and the form of the event, and
how the entire incident was justified for a scientific institution.”
Marie-Claire Foblets is the managing director at the institute’s Department of
Law & Anthropology.

Beck said the Max Planck
Institute deceived the public by saying Finkelstein’s lecture was open to the
public admission.

After rising criticism of the
event in the media, largely in the Post, the institute changed the event to an
internal workshop and barred the public from attending, according to critics.

The Green Party inquiry seeks
answers from the MPI about its flyer with the institute’s logo promoting
Finkelstein’s event.

The Max Planck Institute flyer
said Finkelstein “will argue that dominant depictions of [Operation] Protective
Edge were replete with misinformation and disinformation: on the one hand,
Israel did not launch the deadly attack in ‘self-defense,’ it did not engage in
a ‘war’ with Hamas and its Iron Dome anti-missile defense system did not save
many Israeli lives; on the other hand, Hamas did not fire ‘rockets’ at Israel
and it did not construct ‘terrorist tunnels’ targeting Israel’s civilian
population.”

In the 2014 Operation
Protective Edge, Israel sought to stop Hamas rocket attacks and the kidnapping
of citizens. The IDF also uncovered a vast Hamas tunnel system used to launch
attacks within Israel’s borders.

In a January email to Beck,
Stratmann said, “There are perhaps things that are factually false” in the
flyer. He energetically defended Finkelstein’s academic credentials in a letter
to the Education Ministry.

Numerous Post press queries to
Stratmann were not returned In response to accusations that the institute
spreads academic antisemitism, the institute wrote on its website: “Seventy
years after the Holocaust, employees with a Jewish background are now active at
Max Planck.”

The German government provides
public funds for the Max Planck Institute.

The Green Party’s six-page
inquiry form said there “is a series of inconsistencies, contradictions… that
raise doubts about the scientific quality, truthfulness and transparency” of
the institute’s communication about the Finkelstein talks.

In early March, the Student
Council of the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg hammered the
MPI-Halle’s invitation to Finkelstein for “legitimising antisemitic and
anti-Israel positions” and failing to work with scientific methods and a basis
of facts.

The student group called on the
Max Planck Institute to investigate the incident at Halle and ensure that
MPI-Halle will not provide a platform to Jew-hatred events in the future.

Foblets, the Belgium-born
professor from MPI-Halle, doubled down on her defense of Finkelstein in an
interview with a Munich paper on Friday.